The first of the Census Bureau's July 2016 metro/micro/county-level (and I think possibly city-level) population estimates should come out within the next three weeks. I fully expect the Metroplex will re-pass Greater Houston as the largest net domestic migration gaining U.S. metro since the 2010 Census.

But all's far from well, I'll admit. As The_Overdog put it, "...the over-arching guise of regionalism is starting to fracture - (transportation) DART, NCTCOG plans, (water) NTMWD, (travel) DFW & Love vs rail, and schooling (suburban students taking spots in Dallas' top magnets vs suburban schools generally better than urban). Will be interesting to see if any break apart in the next decade."

Ft. Worth already exceeds Dallas in land area; in the next decade its planners anticipate a municipal decision on adding 16 more square miles, out to the edge of Aledo, Texas (That's just under thirty percent of the total acreage that they've analyzed and classified for annexation in their current public records).

It's probably never going to get less fractious where these powers that be are concerned. They'll keep scrapping to finance an edgeless monument to the noble Houstonian's prowess at selling us that oil and gas, I guess. From Northwest Highway to well past U.S. Rte 380, that's the template, and the oldest of it is only just about to start turning 65...

Perhaps equally unrealistic to hope for better in the next 65 years, but that's what Opolis Blueprints are for.

This is not our Mansfield, as you might have guessed, but the old Mansfield that's half a world away.

I think the Texas one might have a chance not to be forgotten if it arranged a thoughtful marriage with Midlothian ( -- another very good Great Britain name become all too forgettable in Metroplex context). A city of 90,000 Texans joined together with a sturdy name such as that of historic nearby Alvarado (in 1855 a burg of favorably comparable size to Ft. Worth) would begin to be able to set the terms for the urbanizing southern tier. This thread is now likewise started in order to serve as the nucleus of the best suggestions for that area.

I think the first item in the urbanization of this southern tier must be an environmental assessment and thorough inventory of fracking activity and fallout; remediation is mandatory before the oil company can skip town and leave it up to the govt to clean up any damage.

Second item, identify a general urban growth boundary to re-establish a sturdy wilderness preserve, the Mountain Creek basin seems to be a very good place to start....

With these two items established as the foundation for the area, let the town do what they do.

All the little white dots on this map are fracking wells.

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To recognize both of your excellent points, I've taken time to make a little illustration for us all.

I used the latest GIS maps online for the extraterritorial jurisdictions (ETJs) of Burleson, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, Midlothian, and Waxahachie, and roughly transcribed them here.

Red is GP's ETJ; purple is the FW and Waxahachie ETJ -- I almost ran straight out of patience, and quit doing FW's north of 20.Dark green are Burleson, Mansfield, and Midlothian ETJs.Wonder if the Leg would pass a law to allow different boroughs to exist in 1 city.Or is that law on the books?Lite green is the future extent of Grand Prairie, most populous city in the state.

GP-TX.png

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Factoid I found out: if you add the 7/1/2015 estimated populations of Dallas and its three surrounded towns, they are the same population as A/FW plus their sixteen surrounded towns. Which means when new 7/1/16 ests come out, FW+A > D (granted, D occupies only 70% of their land area)...

It has long been the goal of FW to have a larger population than Dallas. I will never forget Mayor Moncrief ending a presentation saying he looked forward to the day the world sees this region as the Fort Worth-Dallas region and not the Dallas-Fort Worth region. While FW is totally obsessed with Dallas they have completely missed Plano-Frisco and everything that happens up there. DNT/121 area is about to eclipse downtown FW in terms of total leasable office space and they are still obsessed with what's going on in Dallas.

Not to mention, Dallas' southern burbs are now blooming. Waxahachie has the largest planned development south of the Metroplex under construction right now. The growth in Waxahachie has become so astronomical that the new Baylor hospital is working on plans to build a new facility next to the one they just built. The facility is going to be a 15 story tower.

joshua.dodd wrote:Not to mention, Dallas' southern burbs are now blooming. Waxahachie has the largest planned development south of the Metroplex under construction right now. The growth in Waxahachie has become so astronomical that the new Baylor hospital is working on plans to build a new facility next to the one they just built. The facility is going to be a 15 story tower.

tamtagon wrote:I think the first item in the urbanization of this southern tier must be an environmental assessment and thorough inventory of fracking activity and fallout; remediation is mandatory before the oil company can skip town and leave it up to the govt to clean up any damage.

Second item, identify a general urban growth boundary to re-establish a sturdy wilderness preserve, the Mountain Creek basin seems to be a very good place to start....

Totally whacked out flooding in Houston seems to change priorities, establishing urban growth boundaries in North Texas is probably the more difficult task, and therefore the one needed to be done first.